Hanson is a choreographer, director, performer, dance educator, and the Founding Artistic Director/Executive Director of The Seldoms, a Chicago-based dance group. Hanson collaborates with practitioners in dance, theater, architecture, installation, video, sound, fashion, history, and science. She wants audiences to have an expanded experience of dance — one that moves beyond entertainment to one that ignites thought and understanding of real-world issues from dance’s unique perspective.

In the fall of 2019, Hanson will teach “From Topic to Topography,” a cross-disciplinary course exploring how movement and actions can illuminate thought around a wide variety of environmental issues. Hanson’s residency will be hosted by the School of Education’s Dance Department, with support from the Wisconsin Union Theater.

Barson is a composer, baritone saxophonist, historian, educator, and political activist, whose research and compositional practices are informed by the African diaspora, American Indigenous, and Asian American influences on jazz.

Barson was also mentored by Fred Ho, the fall 2008 IARP artist.

Rodriguez is an internationally renowned vocalist (and opera singer), educator, and Indigenous rights and ecological justice activist. Together, Barson and Rodriguez co-founded the Afro Yaqui Music Collective, an ensemble that combines Afro-Asian music and activism with inspiration from the music of the Yaqui of northern Mexico. Barson and Rodriguez work to incorporate voices of regional and Indigenous communities in the creation of their boundary-pushing interdisciplinary works.

In the spring of 2020, Barson and Rodriguez will teach a course entitled, “Migrant Liberation Movement Suite” addressing the intersection of climate change and forced migration in Wisconsin. Their residency will be hosted by the Asian American Studies Program with support from the Mead Witter School of Music and the Dance Department.